Audrey Hepburn has long been one of my icons. I grew up with her films, of course, joining the escapades in Roman Holiday every Christmas, dancing along to Funny Face, or crying over Cat in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
Yet I always found her life story even more fascinating and worth admiring, a patchwork of stories of perseverance, love, tragedy, romance, and, yes, even food.
I was recently reading the newly published Audrey At Home collection and was struck by her obvious love for her time in Italy and for cooking Italian food for her family.
The book is full of touching and wistful anecdotes and lovely recipes. It also reminded me that although Southern French food is my forte, Italian cooking shares the same emphasis on seasonality, color, and gathering that I love.
Audrey’s favorite version of tricolore included avocado – which also sounds fantastic – mine includes eggplant.
Tricolore salad
You’ll need:
- 1 ear of corn
- 1 medium sized eggplant
- 1 large tomato, sliced
- 1/2 cup fresh mozzarella balls
- 3 cloves of garlic, minced
- olive oil
- salt, pepper + pink peppercorns
1. Grill the corn and the eggplant first. This is easier in summer, of course, so you can always roast or char them on the stovetop in colder months or if you don’t have access to an outdoor grill.
2. Take the corn off the husk carefully. Gently toss together the garlic, olive oil, corn and tomatoes.
3. Top with mozzarella – you can halve the balls, depending on size – and eggplant. I like to quarter the eggplant.
4. Season with salt, pepper, and a few crushed pink peppercorns.
Beautiful salad! I love that you managed to keep the eggplant looking pretty. That’s sometimes challenging, at least for me!
Oh I know exactly what you mean! 🙂 thank you!
What a gorgeous recipe book. I think I could spend hours flipping through it (I half buy recipe books for the photographs and stories, never mind the food… that one looks like it has it all!). Your tricolore looks stunning. I am a sucker for deliciously soft eggplant, yours looks perfect Ksenia! xx
Oh you would love this one then, Laura! It’s full of stories and family memories, but also delicious recipes and archive photos. Thanks so much, lovely xx
I’ve always thought that Audrey Hepburn’s acting career was only the beginning of an interesting public life. I was happy to learn that she had great taste in the kitchen, as well as the clothing rack, too.
Your salad has her kind of panache.
That’s so kind of you to say! She was a completely fascinating woman, both in public and private life.